Research

Agriculture, wildlife, and Conservation in the Galapagos Islands

Abstract: Did you know that there is agriculture in the Galapagos Islands? Agriculture used to be one of Galapagos’ main economic drivers and profoundly transformed the landscapes of the humid highlands of its inhabited islands. The humid highlands are the archipelago’s most biologically productive and diverse regions, serving as crucial habitats for endemic fauna and flora. They are also the main battleground against the spread of invasive plants. Migration from farms to urban areas spurred by the growing tourism industry has led to invasive species proliferating in abandoned farms, threatening both agricultural lands and adjacent protected areas. However, conservation practitioners continue to exclude farmers from regional development and conservation plans, fostering an antagonistic relationship with crucial allies for conservation. This project took a unique mixed-methods approach to highlight farmers’ roles in sustaining the islands. It used remote sensing data, census data, and interview data to map land covers and farming practices using categories relevant to agriculture and conservation. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to predict suitable tortoise habitats across farmlands and identify ways of handling invasive and protected species on farms. These findings reframe the relationship between agriculture and conservation as allies in sustaining people’s livelihoods, controlling invasive species’ spread, and protecting emblematic flora and fauna in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. This project reaffirms the systems science perspective that humans and their environment are mutually-constituting and urges greater collaboration between agriculture and conservation sectors.

Observed and predicted giant tortoise habitat overlaps with human use areas in the Galapagos.

Giant tortoises (A) and their suitable habitat overlap with areas used for cultivation/livestock (B). Giant tortoises are also known to be effective seed dispersers for endemic and introduced plants alike, such as the invasive guava fruit (C).

Related publications

In Land Cover Classification of Agroecosystems in Non-Protected highlands of the Galapagos Islands we present the first high-resolution land cover map of Galapagos agroecosystems using categories relevant for both agriculture and conservation practitioners. The full dataset may be downloaded from the supplementary materials section.  I hope this dataset helps projects that promote local food security as well as conservation of surrounding ecosystems.

In the book chapter Galapagos is a Garden, I reviewed dominant discourses from published literature and analyzed the the semiotics of two narratives: the traditional “Galapagos is a Natural Laboratory” and the more modern “Galapagos as a Coupled Human-Natural System“.

 

In Drone Based Participatory Mapping: Examining Local Agricultural Knowledge in the Galapagos we showed that drone images can be very useful not only for land cover verification but for qualitative research, as well!

 

Past Research